Winds, heat hamper efforts to fight fire on Turner ranch

Wilderness firefighters struggled against the New Mexico heat, dry air and high winds on Saturday in a battle to contain a blaze that has blackened 750 acres of Turner's 578,000-acre Vermejo Ranch.Temperatures in the 80s and humidity as low as 15 percent combined with gusty winds to hamper control efforts against the fire burning ponderosa pines and brush in parched steep terrain in northeastern New Mexico.

The fire was about 40 percent contained and firefighters expected to fully contain it by today, said Terri Wildermuth, state Forestry Division spokeswoman. Helicopters joined the fight, dropping large buckets of water on the blaze about five miles north of Cimarron.